the role of tourism in natural resource management in the okavango ...

There is, however, an ongoing debate over the desirability of this process of
globalisation. Some regard it as the harbinger of a new commodity capitalism that
facilitates an allegedly generalisable high material standard of living, while others
view it as a process of sociocultural standardisation that benefits the already
privileged while destroying local cultural variation and alternative ways of life (Eisner
and Lang, 1991; Barnet and Cavanagh, 1994; Barber, 1996). Others also tend to
question this 'naturalising' of globalisation. This viewpoint regards international
economic integration occurring on unequal terms of exchange that favour the former
colonial powers at the expense of the ex-colonial world. Therefore, globalisation
becomes a means to legitimise neo-colonial practices that leave ex-colonial
societies penetrable to large financial and international aid institutions (Marcos,
1995; McMichael, 1996).
3.4.1 Globalisation and Tourism
One of the most noted characteristics of tourism is that its worldwide growth is
increasing at an exponential rate, and as Held et al (1999) note, "...it is one of the
most obvious forms of globalisation" (p. 360). According to Amin and Thrift (1994),
there is no single, all encompassing, definition of globalisation, rather a set of
concerns which involve the disintegration of the nation state, the rise of transnational
corporations, and the growth of new technologies and electronic broadcast media.
Globalisation is characterised by increasing economic, social and cultural
interconnections, that exist across national boundaries, and which are increasingly
impacting upon the daily lives of people around the world (Meethan, 2001).
According to Ugarteche (2000), globalisation can be defined as "...growth in an
economic activity that transcends national and regional boundaries" (p. 75). It is the
"...intensification of world-wide social relations which link distant localities in such a
way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and
visa versa" (Giddens, 1990, p. 59). It is evident in the increasing movement of goods
and services through trade and investment - and of human beings - across
international borders, as well as in the exchange of information in real time. It is
driven by individual economic players in search of greater profits under pressure
from competition (Ugarteche, 2000).
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